Did Derby County show promotion form with victory over QPR?

Before Monday night’s hard-fought win against a grizzly Queens Park Rangers side, much was made of the fact that Derby had failed to take a single point from any of the other sides currently in the top six.

Until beating QPR 1-0, the Rams had played their promotion rivals – Leicester, QPR, Burnley, Forest and Reading six times – scoring only three goals and collecting no points in the process.

It seemed to follow that while our attacking verve was too much for most of the Championship’s lesser lights, Derby had something of a soft centre and were easy for the top teams to pick off.

That was what made the performance against QPR so pleasing. The Rams defended impeccably against battle-hardened opposition. And while, on the face of it, our record against the best sides suggests that we would find the play-offs very difficult should we get there, it’s worth pointing out that the majority of our defeats this term came under Nigel Clough’s management.

It was clear when we played Chelsea in the FA Cup that the team’s organisation had improved. Faced with the ability of Oscar, Willian, Ramires and Eto’o, Derby maintained their shape with impressive diligence, defending with real focus and frustrating Jose Mourinho until well into the second half. I hoped that this defensive rigor would translate into a positive display in the next match at the King Power Stadium, but without John Eustace in the anchor role, the team fell apart.

Derby showed their patience to keep out QPR (Picture: Getty)

The QPR game was perfect for Eustace. Faced with a Robbie Savage-esque nuisance of an opponent in Joey Barton, Eustace shielded the defence admirably and, notably, did not pick up a yellow card – unlike QPR’s midfield man.Eustace is on nine bookings for the term and is clearly saving up his tenth for a ‘needs must’ challenge to prevent a goalscoring opportunity. George Thorne, on loan from West Brom, waits patiently for his chance.

For all Barton’s preening, posturing and flailing arms, it was Eustace, Buxton and Keogh who were the dominant force in the match. QPR’s lack of pace was marked in the first half, but even after the introduction of Junior Hoilett, they were unable to ruffle the determined Rams backline unduly.

After trying to turn on the style while 3-1 up at Birmingham and getting badly burned, Derby showed tremendous discipline against Rangers. We knew that the Rams could score against anyone at this level – they remain the Championship’s top scorers at the time of writing – but with a relatively poor defensive record and a dearth of clean sheets, questions remained about whether they were solid enough to stay the course and challenge for promotion.

The QPR result will have surprised many. The challenge for the team now is to go to Sheffield Wednesday and perform with the same composure and professionalism.